The Mighty Nein
My words are inadequate to the burden of my heart; therefore I knitted my heart into this.
This shawl was inspired by a piece of art by Elaine Ry. In it, Matt is spinning fiber from the world around him, and weaving it into a tapestry of Vox Machina fighting Thordak. I’m not a weaver, but I’m trying to achieve a similar goal: storytelling through fiber. The shawl is the color of the Cobalt Soul, as if it were an entry in their collection. It has nine sections, because of course it does: one for each member of the Mighty Nein, and one for the DM.
The DM section takes inspiration from how a DM is depicted in most art - hooded and cloaked.I specifically used the animated Mighty Nein intro’s DM to choose the shaping of the hood, and there are small twisted stitches to show the inner edge of the hood over the face. Eight rays come down around the DM’s head, one for each PC member of the Mighty Nein. The hood and cloak flow out from the DM, eventually reaching and forming the straight edges of the shawl. The edge contains small cables flowing in both directions, as the story is constantly unfolding. The DM shapes and creates, but allows for the story to grow from the outlines.
Below the DM’s head is a book, outlined with clear crystal beads. The book is the rules and the world. A DM creates a story, sending light through the prism of the rules and story, painting a unique picture all their own.
Beau is up in front, throwing punches, defending her family. The fist of her right hand is pushing out of the fabric. Her fist holds an arrow on one side, Deflecting Missiles. On the other side of her fist is her bo staff. It still has Nila’s feather tied to it, in memory of the fight they lost, and the fight they then won.
As a sailor, Fjord is familiar with cabled and knotted rope. I used cables to tell his story, from the outside in. First, there is a heavy wave: the surface of the ocean. Next, a section of calmer waves, beneath the surface. The ocean can be gentle and welcoming, or it can drown you. Then a chain, keeping something at bay, locked away. Then, Uk’otoa (Uk’otoa) himself, a writhing serpent, whose shape forms the slit of an eye. But then, kelp, stretching between Uk’otoa and Fjord, keeping the evil away. With the mirrored nature of Fjord’s section, the cables of Uk’otoa form two eyes - two locks undone. While it appears to a quick glance that there is a third eye in the middle of this piece, it is instead a symbol of the Wildmother, protecting the heart of the man whose story this is.
To me, Jester is the embodiment of love. She loves everyone, and strives to be friends with all (barring Icky-thon). She and her mother have a very loving relationship, and I used a mother-daughter cable with interlocking hearts at the center of her section to document that first, defining love. Attached to a ribbon flowing from side to side of the section are Jester’s Spiritual Lollipop, her symbol of the Traveler, a blueberry cupcake with sprinkles of the Dust of Deliciousness, and a dick, of course. She also might technically have left some hidden dicks in other people’s sections, technically. And some graffiti between the DM’s section and Beau’s section.
Caleb’s section is an embodiment of time. It takes time, after all.
The section is broken into three horizontal sections, each representing a school of magic: flames for evocation on the top, twisting cables for transmutation in the middle, and interweaving lines for dunamancy on the bottom. Closer to the edges of the shawl, the flames dominate the section, as they did when he was a student. As he proceeds away from that time in his life, he shifts his focus more towards transmutation, though the fire never goes completely away. I chose cables to represent transmutation because that is what a cable is - changing the order of how the yarn is worked to shift its shape. Underneath it all are the lines of dunamancy: interwoven lines of fate, time, and gravity. In the center is an hourglass. Before I knew the ending of Campaign 2, I put in the hourglass to represent Caleb’s temptation to change the past. Now, it’s a representation of his ability to change - and the time it took to get to that change. It also is reminiscent of a piece of art by Jake Wennik (@OddAlchemist), where Caleb in the upper half of an hourglass reaches down to Essek in the lower half of the hourglass. Fire reaching out to dunamancy through the ability to change. In the empty spaces around the hourglass are pawprints, though the last is only partially there - Frumpkin was there for Caleb when he needed a cat, and now has returned to the Feywild.
Much of Veth’s section is made up of repeating motifs of buttons and crossbow bolts - two things she’s very fond of. The fletching of each of the bolts is actually a braid - to represent how she wears her hair in her halfling form. The bolts are facing away from Caleb’s section - I imagine her standing in front of him, firing her crossbow to defend him as he casts his magic.
The center is Nott’s mask. I didn’t choose the stitch for her mask based on its name, but the fact that it’s called a Knot Stitch is just perfect. The strings of the mask are not attached to anything - showing that not only has she reclaimed her proper body and doesn’t need it to hide anymore, but that she has made efforts to not hide who she is in other ways.
Scattered around the mask are various treasures in the form of coins, and two hearts, for Yeza and Luc.
The center of Caduceus’s section is a Mother and Child knot. The idea for this came when I was searching for the right kind of Mother/Daughter knot for Jester’s section. I came across this knot, and it immediately called to mind a piece of art by Caitlin W. Candy (@theartingace) where Cad is sitting in meditation with his tea. The Wildmother is behind him, with one hand on his shoulder, and the other on his head. It is a beautiful, striking piece that really encapsulated Caduceus’s relationship with his goddess. I used the knot, and put a teacup beneath it, in homage to this art piece.
To the right (when facing the section), there is a series of branching and expanding cables. The imagery for this comes from the Level 10 art, where Caduceus has what looks like lightning/ roots/fungi trailing up the outside of his coat. Additionally, I drew inspiration from Jessica Nguyen’s (@Jessketchin) art of level 10 Caduceus. The art has the roots/lightning both growing up from Cad, and growing down.
To the left, there is a section of honeycomb disintegrating into lace. This is for “Hello Bees!”, as well as the dragonfly lace of his sleeve. The lace is an encoding of the word “Life”, created by Naomi Parkhurst on her String Geekery blog. Life, for all of nature, and his goddess.
Along the bottom of the section are gravestones of various sizes, with fungi growing out of them or on them. The gravestones are made with a pattern called Seed Stitch, as they represent the source of tea. The skulls on either end are made with Bee Stitch - chosen for its 3D texture, but the name works very nicely. There are two, twisting crystal pillars on either end of Caduceus’s section, for the newly protected Blooming Grove. The inside of the large crystals are also done in Seed Stitch, as the partially germinated crystals were planted like seeds.
Throughout this section are Melora’s spirals, small mushrooms, and flowers. It’s the least ordered of all the sections, because nature is not interested in being orderly.
Yasha’s section is repeating motifs of flowers and lightning. The flowers get wider from bottom to top, as if she’s holding an armful of them (art inspiration from Kasia Brzezinska, @avatarkasia). The lightning gets wider from top to bottom, as it spreads out in a strike. It also splits in two, looking perhaps like wings. Separating the flowers sections from the lightning sections are three-strand braids, evoking the way she wears her hair, and her clothing in her first official art. I thought that her hairstyle and clothing likely was similar to what she wore in Xhorhas, and I wanted to represent flavors of her past (braids), present (lightning), and future (flowers and wings).
There was never any doubt in my mind that Molly would have the outermost section. That’s where knitting can play most easily with elaborate lace, and Molly could have nothing less than ostentatiousness. The moons are for the Moonweaver, and the inside of his fabulous coat. They form the pommels of his scimitars. The fabric is twisted stitches all around the scimitars to look like little scars from using his abilities. Each section is divided by a series of diamonds, to go with his leggings. The biggest diamond is at the bottom, causing the diamonds to faintly resemble a snake, like his tattoo. (falling tarot cards?)
There are nine peacock feathers, made of lace and highlighted with beads. My initial plan was to have each feather contain a red eye, but the return of Lucien and the corrupting eyes appearing on the Nein made that idea much less appealing. After episode 141, I saw a piece of art by Dylan Bobier (@dylanbydoodles) that showed just the left side of each member of the Mighty Nein’s face, which really called my attention to their eyes. I chose to put the colors of each member’s eyes in the peacock feathers: Essek, Caleb, Veth, Caduceus, Molly, Yasha, Beau, Fjord, and Jester. The Mighty Nein were Nine at last.
When finishing the edge of the shawl, I worked the stitches as 0s and 1s, writing in hexadecimal binary: “The Mighty Nein: Leave the world better than you found it”.
I still exist because of Critical Role. The Mighty Nein were there for me when I was in such darkness. They provided a light that cannot be understated.
[Video id: a long pan from the top of the shawl to the bottom, moving over the central motifs in the following order: DM hood and book, Beau's fist, the wreath of the Wildmother, the mother and daughter knot, the hourglass that transforms fire into dunamancy, Nott's mask, the Wildmother and Child cable, a bouquet of flowers, and Molly's beaded peacock feather. At the end, the entire length of the shawl is visible from the bottom.]
